How the Federal Republic of Germany shaped its image anew at documenta

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‘documenta. Politics and Art’, opens on 18 June 2021 at the Deutsches Historisches Museum

 

BERLIN, GERMANY – Newsaktuell – 16 June 2021 – Documenta’s rise to become Germany’s most successful art exhibition was due not least to its political dimension, in particular the need to draw a line under National Socialism, followed by the formation of the Eastern and Western blocs in the Cold War. Although the exhibition claimed to distance itself from Nazi cultural policy, it failed to engage openly with the National Socialist past. At the same time, its politically motivated orientation towards the West led it to reject the socialist concept of art in the Eastern bloc.